Bridge Sixty-Seven - Ponte delle Guglie

From the Ponte della Costituzione we walked past the busy Santa Lucia rail station, past the Ponte degli Scalzi and on toward the Cannaregio Canal, the second busiest canal in Venice after the Grand Canal. At the canal we reached the next bridge on our list, the Ponte delle Guglie or Bridge of Spires.

It's abundantly clear why it's called the Bridge of Spires - at each end of the bridge there are two stone 'needles' that jut about two metres into the air. The spires are a fairly recent addition; they were added during a rebuilding of the bridge in 1823 and are, as bridge decorations, totally unique in the city.

It's only the second time on the Challenge that we're seeing spires on a bridge. The first time was about sixty-four bridges ago (!!), early in the morning, when we crossed the Ponte San Basio o delle Catene.

The original bridge, a wooden construction, was built in 1285, a good six hundred years ago and was then called, aptly, the Cannaregio Bridge. Today it's a broad, shallow stone and brick bridge that carries the never-ending tourist traffic between the rail and bus stations and the Rialto Bridge area. Small sculptures of lion heads and human faces adorn the arches of the bridge, a ubiquitous sight at similar bridges in Venice.